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In what historians
term 'the long 18th
century', Britain
fought three major wars
against France - yet only
in America did Britain
suffer humiliating defeat.
As a result, the American
Revolution has never loomed large in
British history syllabi, indeed the scholarly
biographies of the British commanders are
more often than not written by Americans.
Yet in purely military terms, the
American War of lndependence was not
the disaster of popular perception - Britain
won the majority of the major battles
and still held key strongholds during the
peace negotiations. And at the same time
as Britain was losing its grasp of America,
it was strengthening its hold elsewhere -
India, Canada, and in the Caribbean.
The blame for the loss of America
has traditionally been laid at the feet of
British commanders and politicians whose
arrogance and incompetence was the cause
of humiliating defeat. O'Shaughnessy
sets out to demolish this myth through
the biographies of the ten who were in
charge: George III, Lord North, General
Sir William Howe and his brother Admiral
Lord Richard Howe,John Butgoyne,
Lord Germain, Sir Henry Clinton, Lord
Cornwallis, Admiral Sir George Rodney,
and the Earl of Sandwich.
In what is a first-rate study, scholarly,
yet accessible, he highlights the fact that
while the British army was a formidable
weapon of conquest, it was too small to be
an effective army of occupation. The British
were overstretched, forced to divide their
forces and suffered significant logistical
problems. Added to this was the fact that
several British commanders had a degree of
affinity for the colonists (many had fought
alongside the British during the Seven
Years' War). The French contribution is also
crucial and, at sea, perhaps decisive.
So while Britain did not entirely lose
the American War of Independence
and was not totally defeated, Britain
still lost America. Not as the result of
incompetence, but because she did not
have the will, the ruthlessness, and the
determination to keep it.
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| Author
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Andrew O'Shaughnessy
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| Published
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2023
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| Pages
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496 |
| Publisher
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0neworld Publications
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| ISBN
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978-1780742465
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| Availability
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| Abebooks
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| Review Originally Published
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July 2013Military History Monthly
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